Friday, October 18, 2013

The whole thing starts with a single knot

The whole thing starts with a single knot
and needles. A word and pen. Tie a loop
in nothing. Look at it. Cast on, repeat
the procedure till you have a line
that you can work with.
It’s a pattern made of relation alone,
my patience, my rhythm, till empty bights
create a fabric that can be worn,
if you’re lucky and practised. It’s never too late
to pick up dropped stitches...

"Knitting is clothing made in spare moments, or round the fire,
whenever women gathered together... It's something to celebrate -- clothes
made in love and service, something women have always done." - Anne Bartlett(Knitting: A Novel)

"Even when it isn't going well, knitting can be deeply spiritual.
Knitting sets goals that you can meet. Sometimes when I work on
something complicated or difficult -- ripping out my work and starting
over, pouring over tomes of knitting expertise, screeching 'I don't get
it!' while practically weeping with frustration -- my husband looks at me
and says, 'I don't know why you think you like knitting.' I just stare
at him. I don't like knitting. I love knitting. I don't know what could
have possible led him to think that I'm not enjoying myself. The
cursing? The crying? The fourteen sheets of shredded graph paper?
Knitting is like a marriage (I tell him) and you don't just trash the
whole thing because there are bad moments."

"I am a writer who does not enjoy writing. I can find innumerable ways
to avoid it. But, to rip off Dorothy Parker, nothing else—nothing—gives
me the same thrill as having written. I’m the same way with
knitting. The process is fine, mind you, and keeps my hands busy. But
nothing else—nothing—gives me the rush that I get from finishing
something.

"The parallels between writing and knitting go even
further. Like writing, knitting has a finite number of raw ingredients.
There are twenty-six letters in the alphabet. Those letters can combine
to give you David Foster Wallace or freshman composition papers. There
are only two basic stitches: the knit and the purl. Those stitches can
add up to a gorgeously complicated sweater or a pastel pink toilet paper
cozy. The difference is in the mind that shapes them."

This post is dedicated to Delia Sherman, and all you other mad knitters out there. (There was also a spinning/weaving/sewing post earlier in the autumn: Spinning Straw into Gold). Visit the Poetry Society's website to read about their "Knit a Poem" project, created in 2009 for the society's centenary celebration.

Comments

The whole thing starts with a single knot

The whole thing starts with a single knot
and needles. A word and pen. Tie a loop
in nothing. Look at it. Cast on, repeat
the procedure till you have a line
that you can work with.
It’s a pattern made of relation alone,
my patience, my rhythm, till empty bights
create a fabric that can be worn,
if you’re lucky and practised. It’s never too late
to pick up dropped stitches...

"Knitting is clothing made in spare moments, or round the fire,
whenever women gathered together... It's something to celebrate -- clothes
made in love and service, something women have always done." - Anne Bartlett(Knitting: A Novel)

"Even when it isn't going well, knitting can be deeply spiritual.
Knitting sets goals that you can meet. Sometimes when I work on
something complicated or difficult -- ripping out my work and starting
over, pouring over tomes of knitting expertise, screeching 'I don't get
it!' while practically weeping with frustration -- my husband looks at me
and says, 'I don't know why you think you like knitting.' I just stare
at him. I don't like knitting. I love knitting. I don't know what could
have possible led him to think that I'm not enjoying myself. The
cursing? The crying? The fourteen sheets of shredded graph paper?
Knitting is like a marriage (I tell him) and you don't just trash the
whole thing because there are bad moments."

"I am a writer who does not enjoy writing. I can find innumerable ways
to avoid it. But, to rip off Dorothy Parker, nothing else—nothing—gives
me the same thrill as having written. I’m the same way with
knitting. The process is fine, mind you, and keeps my hands busy. But
nothing else—nothing—gives me the rush that I get from finishing
something.

"The parallels between writing and knitting go even
further. Like writing, knitting has a finite number of raw ingredients.
There are twenty-six letters in the alphabet. Those letters can combine
to give you David Foster Wallace or freshman composition papers. There
are only two basic stitches: the knit and the purl. Those stitches can
add up to a gorgeously complicated sweater or a pastel pink toilet paper
cozy. The difference is in the mind that shapes them."

This post is dedicated to Delia Sherman, and all you other mad knitters out there. (There was also a spinning/weaving/sewing post earlier in the autumn: Spinning Straw into Gold). Visit the Poetry Society's website to read about their "Knit a Poem" project, created in 2009 for the society's centenary celebration.

Myth & Moor

by Terri Windling

I'm a writer, artist, and book editor interested in myth, folklore, fairy tales, and the ways they are used in contemporary arts. I workin the New York publishing industry but I live in aDevon village at the edgeof Dartmoor with my English husband, dramatist & puppeteer Howard Gayton, our daughter, Victoria Windling-Gayton, and a joyful hound named Tilly (a Springer Spaniel/Labrador cross).

The 37th International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts: I'm delighted to be Guest of Honor in 2016 along with writer Holly Black and fairy tale scholar Cristina Bacchilega. ICFA is held annually in Orlando, Florida in March. Further information on the 37th conference will be posted soon.

Other events in 2016 are still being confirmed, so please check back.

Take a stroll through our village (and its environs) by visiting my neighbors' blogs & sites:

"As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth...the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth, the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe. I try to hold both history and the wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times." - Gary Snyder

"People talk about medium. What is your medium? My medium as a writer has been dirt, clay, sand - what I could touch, hold, stand on, and stand for - Earth. My medium has been Earth. Earth in correspondence with my mind.” - Terry Tempest Williams

"This earth that we live on is full of stories in the same way that, for a fish, the ocean is full of ocean. Some people say when we are born we’re born into stories. I say we’re also born from stories." - Ben Okri

"Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion." - Barry Lopez

Bookshelf

The Wood Wife:A mythic novel set in the Sonoran desert of Arizona. This link goes to the US edition; a UK edition is available here; and the new French edition is here. (For those who might be interested, I did a Q-&-A session on the book over on the Good Reads site.) Winner of the Mythopoeic Award.

Welcome to Bordertown:The latest volume in a classic Urban Fantasy series for YA readers. (An Audie Award nominee, for the audio book edition.) For information on the previous books, visit the Bordertown website.)

All told, I've published over forty books for children, teenagers and adults. More information on my writing, editing, and art can be found on my website.

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Please note that these books are linked to Amazon because it's the only book linking system that Typepad (this blogging service) has,but I urge you to please support your local bookstore if you plan to purchase any of the books mentioned on this blog.

Links to:

The Endicott StudioThe nonprofit organization for Mythic Arts that I ran for 22 years (starting in 1986), co-directed with author & folklorist Midori Snyder. The organization is currently on hiatus (while we catch our breaths and make a living), but a great deal of material from our Journal of Mythic Arts archive remains online.

Interstitial ArtsEllen Kushner, Delia Sherman, & other good folk look at writing and art in the interstices between genres. I was one of the founding board members, and remain an enthusiastic supporter.